About Martin Black

July 29, 2008

I often tell people that "nobody learns any more at a clinic than I do." The reason is that I am watching and trying to figure out where each person is with their horse, where they need to be, and what I can do to help get them there.  

After two one-week Alvord Experiences and two one-month Alvord Schools I feel we all learned a lot. We had never done the month long schools on the ranch before but with the success of the colt starting schools we have in Texas I thought we should try it.  

The week-long "Experiences" were entertaining, and educational for the participants with some historical site seeing, and ranch experience. The month long "Schools" were meant to be educational, with horsemanship, roping and stockmanship.  

People are interesting. Some were repeats from previous years, some were previous clinic participants, all of which would have an idea what to expect. Some people who came for the first time were wanting to sign up for next year before their week was over. Then there were the ones that left in the middle of the night after dinner the first night. Never did hear from them again, they obviously experienced something in only a few hours that they didn't want a week of.  

Point being some loved it, some didn't. What I learned was that we need to better prepare our people for what to expect. Some said they received more pampering than they expected, some didn't get enough.  

Some got more education than others, some obviously were more surprised than others, but in the end what I learned was something I had heard Ray say years ago "the more you learn, the more you learn there is to learn" and another one he said "It takes a lifetime to learn how to live a lifetime".

The lifestyle on a working ranch is different than other places. Your life is dictated by many variables; nature, weather, animals, adverse terrain, and other more natural elements that have shaped a culture different than what a lot of people are use to. It’s hard to prepare someone for an experience that is like no other experience they have had before.

I also learned that we will have an even better school next year at the Alvord and at the same time make it a better experience for the owners, the Davis’. We have already worked out a schedule and a structure that will make it a better learning opportunity for the students, we will have more control of the day-to-day happenings so we can create even more opportunities to improve on our cow work, roping, and horsemanship.

Although we branded over 2000 calves in the time we were there, having smaller brandings next summer would mean even more roping for the students.

All and all Jen and I enjoyed the last 3 months being in one place, with lots of roping and getting lots of quality time on our horses, and sharing all of it with our students. And of course we didn’t use up a lot of $5 diesel doing it, thank God!

May 9, 2008

As a judge for The Californios I naturally get a lot of questions about the placing of teams in the roping or contestants in the stock-horse contest, most of them are fair questions. The judging system is not like any other cow horse event and the roping like no other ranch roping event.

Basically the stock-horse event is judged primarily on the horse we would pick as the one we would most like to own based on what we see that weekend. If I am not impressed with how the horse is shown or the rider seems to be hiding something, we may pick a horse that is less flashy but seems to be more honest.

There is no penalty system, like losing a cow in the rodear, or missed loops. If the horse shows a lot of experience and ability to control a cow they will place higher than one that looks good in a certain pattern. A horse that carries the bit well and responds to it nicely will place higher than a horse that is better trained for the maneuvers but is not bridled up correctly. I am not looking for a show horse, but a good honestly made horse. On the roping, the shot executed is only part of the score. The other portion is influenced by things like how quiet they are in the rodear, how they handle the cattle on the rope and everything else that makes a run smooth and efficient. We are not looking for a fast run but equally so, we do not want to see it drawn out or the cattle stressed. The more skill and experience that is demonstrated by the contestants to make an effective and efficient run, the higher the score they receive.

April 20 , 2008
Luckily, we would hit about 8 to 12 stop lights at one time including the yellow and orange ones we slipped through. Then, when it came time to turn right to get to the tunnel, there is another of those- PASSENGER CARS ONLY signs, so I scramble for the map and there is another way for trucks, don’t panic. I think it might be a good time to reinforce how critical it is not to make a wrong turn in this 60 ft rig because it can be quite a painful recovery process. Things are starting to look suspiciously like a traffic jam and as we near the turn, it appears that it is a 120 degree turn back to the right. Well, any of you that have driven a trailer of any size know that you have to swing a little wide when making these sort of turns. In this case we got in the middle lane, cut off the three lanes of traffic on the road we were turning onto and the three lanes of traffic from the road we were turning off of. We blocked the intersection for nearly 10 minutes waiting for the traffic to clear ahead of us. You would think we would have people honking, waving, cussing and throwing rotten vegetables at us but the strange thing was no one even seemed to notice there was a very large agricultural rig blocking their path. It was like they see this kind of idiot everyday. Since that was the case I thought it would be safe to jump out and take a few pictures of the Mad-Max Mobile in a traffic jam in NYC.

After about 45 minutes of inching along, we finally reach the tunnel, we are so close I can smell the freedom, but then a cop that’s been directing traffic, starts heading straight at us. Martin rolls down the window and sure enough he climbs up on the truck, and says “I can’t let you through here with that trailer,” Well, that just shatters my confidence in Mr. HUI, and worse than that now how are we going to get out of here? There are at least three lanes of traffic on either side of us. No worries, he just stops traffic and sends us out to the left, gives us a series of rights and lefts and sends us off to the Lincoln Tunnel. Now how much sense does that make? They are not going to let us through this tunnel, but they will the other?

But first I’ve got to figure out how to get headed back up the island. Somehow we get turned around and end up on Broadway Riverside and drive right past the Empire State Building, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and Central Park and who knows what other famous places we didn’t even know we saw. I told Martin we should just pull over and spend the night in Central Park and then get up and ride over to the Today’s show all decked out in our buckaroo gear, but the logistics just didn’t line up since we were suppose to be riding Thoroughbreds in Virginia at 8 am, maybe next time.

Somewhere in the middle of our site-seeing, we missed the turn to the Lincoln Tunnel which I was a little skeptical of anyway, so my goal now was to get on Henry Hudson Parkway. We are following the signs to 9A and the next thing you know we are under it, down in the Industrial District or something, all I know is all of a sudden everyone and everything disappeared, it was liked we dropped into the underworld. At this point it is looking like we might have to back out about 100 yards when we see an ally off to the left that Martin can back into and get turned around. It’s a darn good thing he could do it all by himself because I wasn’t about to get out of truck and guide him out of there, I was just hoping there weren’t little gremlins crawling up the side of the trailer before we could get out of there. We turned around, figured out where we missed the turn, and made our way onto the Parkway, which, after the fact, I was informed Parkways are only for cars, well duh, the entire Manhattan Island is for PASSENGER CARS ONLY! I think we only made one more wrong turn before we got back on the Washington Bridge, then we were in New Jersey and there was a wave of relief to be back on a road that was intended for Freightliners and its only 1:30 am at least we are not in jail in NYC with our horses impounded!

We pulled into Springhill Farm about 6 am, unloaded the horses, slept for about three hours and spent the rest of the day riding over zealous Thoroughbreds.

March 11 , 2008
Country Mice in New York City

So, as we continue along Harlem River Drive knocking over every orange barrel for two miles, I am envisioning one of two things. Either there is going to be flashing lights in our mirror at any moment after some angry New Yorker called us in for wrecking their street or, the signs that keeping flashing past us specifying, PASSENGER CARS ONLY means that this street is going to get small enough at some point that we are going to get stuck like a cow with her head in the fence and there is going to be a huge backup while all sorts of emergency vehicles are pulling on our tale trying to free us from some precarious overpass that we tried to squeeze through! Did I mention we have 7 horses and a big load of antique furniture in the trailer?

But that didn’t happen. We made it to one of the two streets this highly unaware individual who gave us directions (we’ll call him HUI for short) told us to turn on and since I was really anxious to get off this PASSENGER CAR ONLY road, I give the go ahead on the first available road, 96th street.

Well, as it turns out, 96th is only slightly narrower than the road we just turned off of and Mr. HUI didn’t mention that 96th was a narrow one way and 97th which he said we could also turn on, was a much wider four lane road. It is at this point that it occurs to me that just because it is nearly 11:30 pm, down town New York is not closed up like my good ol’ home town of Lund, Nevada population 450 would be this time of night, and here I was thinking parking would be a cinch at this late hour.

On the contrary, this place was buzzing with activity, it was very obvious we we're not going to find a 60 ft parking space anywhere. As we pass street after street that we would not be able to turn on I am hoping this isn’t going to be the end of the road for us. Finally, we come to Third Ave which is big enough to make a left go over a few blocks and make another left, and there it is! We made it, and there is actually a bus stop right there that we almost fit in so we are only blocking one lane of traffic.

Mr. HUI is actually on the ball and has all three boxes on a dolly and is heading up the side walk towards us. I wonder how he knew it was us? While Martin jumps out to load the treasures, I am planning our escape route and it looks to me like the thing to do would be to continue down Manhattan Island to the Holland Tunnel, hit I 78 via Pulaski Skyway or 9 or 1 or 22 or whatever the hec that road is that isn’t a toll road that goes straight to 78. Looks like a good idea but I better talk to a Native so I jump out, map in hand, assuming that now that Mr. HUI has seen the rig he will be a much more competent direction giver. I run my plan by him he says that will work, the Holland Tunnel or the Lincoln tunnel either one. Alrighty then, we are set, this isn’t so bad we got er’ whipped!

We jump back in the truck and off we go down Manhattan Island, after about the tenth stoplight in 100 yards I look back at the map and realize that we just left 97th street and we have to go to 1st and then some to get to the Holland Tunnel! That is approximately 100 stop lights in what 2 miles. You can drive 6 hours in Nevada, on pavement mind you, and never encounter a stop light. I’m a little worried at this point that we are never going to make it through all this stopping and going without more than a couple New Yorkees and a taxi cab being caught up in the massive Roo guard on the front of the Mad Max Mobile as Buck Brannaman so calls it!

But Martin over there is as cool as a cat like he’s done this before… either that or he is just having fun playing the Big-Rig card. I just hope these poor unsuspecting people know the rules of the Big- Rig game, but I am quickly consumed with trying to find my camera to document this adventure and leave the poor unsuspecting people to fend for themselves in the wake of the Freightliner.

To be continued...

February 23, 2008
So, starting right off with a narrowly missed Moose mishap, I am unfortunately quite sure that things are still going to get worse before they get better and we are in for a long night! The reason I think this is because we have known for months that we were suppose to pick this art up from NYC but never really looked into the details of it.

Martin had called the number we had been given about two weeks ago and then they traded messages a couple times but we didn’t get a hold of anyone till 6:30 that night when we were leaving Maine, to let this guy know we would be there “in a few hours,” like ten o clock at night. Well, this guy (never did know his name) is out of town, so he hands it off to this other guy. Martin, calls him to get directions and ask him how far it is off the freeway and will a Freightliner and a 40’ trailer get in there, “OH Yeah,” he says, “its not far off the freeway and there are big delivery trucks down here all the time.” I had been in denial about this for some time thinking that we surely wouldn’t be going INTO NYC, that someone would meet us at a rest area or truck-stop or something practical like that, but by this point I am realizing that its too late for such an organized plan and we are in for an adventure, my only possibly consolation is that it is the middle of the night, it shouldn’t be that bad.

Martin hands me the phone so I can write down the directions, I am looking at a map of NYC as I am writing so I can be sure it makes sense, and wouldn’t you know, we are going to an Art Museum in the middle of Manhattan Island, about two blocks from Central Park! Now I’m thinking that growing up in Bruneau, Martin probably cannot even imagine what a mess this is going to be or maybe he can and simply isn’t worried about it. Who knows, but we are committed now!

So, we proceed down 95 through Boston and Providence to NYC and arrive about 10 pm on the outskirts, now we are suppose to get off on Harlem River Drive, just before the George Washington Bridge. Well this guy must only go to work traveling west to east because the exit he tells us does not exist going east to west. Before we know it we are on the George Washington Bride heading into NJ……Off to a helluva good start! We get off the first chance we get, I am on the phone with this guy and he says “just turn around and come back” Oh Yeah, we’ll just whip this puppy around here and be right back. We have to stop and ask a taxi driver how to get back on the bridge, (luckily we did or we would have never figured that out) then we have to pay a $24 toll to get back across the bridge! This time it works perfectly, there is the exit we are suppose to take, ok everything is good, we are exiting and then, when there is no way out, we see a big sign that says PASSENGER CARS ONLY

Well, as it turns out, the reason for the PASSENGER CARS ONLY, is because they are doing construction and there is only one narrow lane curving to the right, with a cement wall on the right and lots of orange barrels on the left. Well, it was either drag the horse trailer along the cement wall or start knocking over barrels, so that’s what we did, knocked over every one of those big orange barrels for about two miles. (They should move that sign so you see it before you exit.) I’m still on the phone with this guy, so I tell him, “This says passenger cars only!” and he says “how big is your truck?” Apparently he missed the description and the point of the previous conversation.

January 7, 2008

We spent this fall on the East coast starting Thoroughbreds in Virginia and Kentucky and doing some clinics in Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Maine. The horses were good, the clinics were good but the return trip…… well let me start with a little background info. We had scheduled ourselves a little tight on this circle trying to fit everything in so we left Springhill Farm in Virginia, Thursday afternoon after riding colts that morning, and headed for Willow brook Farm near Harrisburg Pennsylvania and arrived at 10 pm. The clinic lasted four days and we left Monday after the clinic and headed to Connecticut, arriving at 11pm. Spent two days there, clinics by day and antique shopping by night, then left at 3 am to make it to Maine before the clinic started at 9am. After a four day clinic in Maine, we are back to the return trip, suppose to be an all nighter back to Virginia to ride Thoroughbreds the next day, oh yeah, with one little stop off in New York City!! to pickup some art willed to some friends of ours in Jordan Valley, Oregon.

So, we are leaving Maine about 6 pm on a little two lane road in a full size Freightliner, a 40 foot trailer, 7 horses and a whole load of antique furniture. Martin is looking in the mirror to his left so I assume he sees the MOOSE, coming out of the driveway, just ahead of us on the left, but he isn’t slowing down. So I start saying Moose! Moose! Moose! In an elevated but not quite alarmed voice, assuming that he will catch on and hit the brakes. Nope, he just looks at me with a puzzled look on his face. By this time the moose is in the other lane just ahead of us and still coming. So now I am elevated, alarmed and pointing, Moose! Moose! Still no reaction. Right as the moose is about to collide with the left front fender on the Freightliner, (Martin still hasn’t seen her), she turns and lopes along side us a few strides and then heads safely back into the woods having narrowly escaped an ugly encounter with a Freightliner. Martin, finally sees her as she is loping beside us but never even breaks stride. After she’s gone he looks at me and says, “I thought you wanted ice cream, like Moose tracks ice cream!” In his defense, we do stop at the ice cream stand on the corner just a few more miles down the road and get ice cream at least twice in four days we are in Maine.

Next week, Martin Black goes to New York City……in a Freightliner…….